. . "He, George Washington, and other leaders had been writing back and forth exchanging ideas on how nonimportation should proceed, and on April 5, 1769 Mason wrote to Washington about what effect that policy might have on Virginia and the tension with Great Britain: Our All is at Stake, & the little Conveniencys & Comforts of Life, when set in Competition with our Liberty, ought to be rejected not wi" . .